INTERVIEW-Espirito Santo family no longer has control of BES, CEO says

(Updates with more details)

By Sergio Goncalves

LISBON, June 11 (Reuters) - Portugal's Espirito Santo
banking family and its partner Credit Agricole will
have to share control of Banco Espirito Santo with
other investors after the bank's successful 1 billion euro
capital increase diluted their holdings, the bank's chief
executive said on Wednesday.

The Espirito Santo family and French bank Credit Agricole
held 47 percent of BES, Portugal's largest bank,
though a holding company known as Bespar. But in May they
abandoned this structure and took direct stakes in BES.

Bespar was owned jointly by Espirito Santo Financial Group
(ESFG) - a holding company of the Espirito Santo family
- and Credit Agricole.

After new shares are issued for BES's capital increase, ESFG
will hold 25 percent of BES and Credit Agricole 15 percent.

"As such, the situations are very different, in which nobody
has control," the chief executive said. "There aren't many banks
at the European level that (have) such large shareholders."

"The (Espirito Santo) group will have to share (control)
with other shareholders and explain well what the strategies are
and what policies to follow."

The chief executive said Wednesday's rights issue had been a
success and pointed out that the demand for new shares was 178
percent higher than the supply.

He said the rights issue had not been hit by what the bank
had described as "material irregularities" involving one of the
Espirito Santo family's holding companies.

"This is a very important aspect," he said, referring to the
fact that the bank had been isolated from these issues.

"This is the tenth capital increase we have carried out
since the privatisation in 1992," he said. "This was the one in
which the key shareholders - ESFG and Credit Agricole - did not
take up their full positions and it was the one that had the
most success, in spite of the 'risk factors' in the prospectus."

"This shows BES' strength well and its capacity of acting in
capital markets with plenty of confidence, independently of
these less favourable circumstances," he said.

The risks identified in the prospectus for the capital
increase focused on "reputational" risk to the bank due to the
fact that the bank had sold commercial paper (bonds) issued by
the troubled holding company through its branch network to
clients.

He said that Rioforte - another holding company of the
Espirito Santo family that owns 49 percent of ESFG - is set to
carry out a capital increase of up to 1 billion euros ($1.36
billion) in the next two or three months.

Asset sales by Rioforte are also proceeding, he said, adding
that there are more foreign investors interested in investments
in Portugal.
($1 = 0.7345 Euros)
(Reporting By Sergio Goncalves; Writing by Axel Bugge; Editing
by Laura Noonan and Jane Merriman)